US officials continue to rail at Russia and China and Ecuador and indeed anyone else even nominally involved in the escape of whistleblower Edward Snowden. That seems likely to continue, but Russia and China don’t seem impressed.
Russian officials are mocking the situation, with President Vladimir Putin dismissing the “ravings” of administration officials and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointing out that there was no legal basis to expect Russia to do things according to US law, especially since they don’t have an extradition treaty.
China is less focused on the extradition battle as such and more interested in praising Snowden for uncovering the sordid activities the US has been involved in, with the nation’s largest state-run newspaper cheering Snowden for “tearing off Washington’s sanctimonious mask.”
Chinese officials have insisted there was no legal basis for keeping Snowden from leaving Hong Kong if he wanted to, and have dismissed the White House anger as inappropriate.
